Wednesday, November 23, 2016

Tyrus Cobb, the Detroit baseball star, has succumbed to alluring inducements of a motion picture company. The Georgian’s first film will soon be released, it is understood. According to trustworthy information, Tyrus gave the director very little trouble when the play—a baseball story—was being filmed, until he was asked to make love to the heroine. Cobb, it is claimed, absolutely refused to indulge in Graeco-Roman tactics, so that part of his performance ...

What it really comes down to, though, is why should they care? In many cases, the style of hiring that teams are used to has had decent-to-great results, with the best-case scenario being the two front offices that just made the World Series. As we discussed in our previous work, there are studies that suggest in the “outside” business world, increased diversity in the workplace does lead to higher success for the company, but there have been no such studies in the small and rarefied world ...

Shortstop—Amed Rosario, St. Lucie (66 games), Binghamton (54 games): Despite being three years younger than the average position player at Double-A, Rosario flashed signs of being a future franchise cornerstone in 2016.

“Going back to last year when he was with us for the playoffs, I was impressed with his approach at the plate,” Lopez said. “Then this season, there was a big improvement in how he put together his at-bats. He did not miss a beat this season.”

“A lot of assumptions about health for next year, but if we’re healthy, we certainly have a solid, very good pitching staff that can get us where we need to go,” Luhnow said. “Adding Morton gave us some additional depth. We’re certainly in the market for another top-tier pitcher if it presents itself, but those are difficult trades to make. We’re looking, but nothing is imminent right now.”

Luhnow said signing Morton and trading for McCann were critical early moves because the Astros wanted ...

Meanwhile, most big-market teams are moving slowly for two main reasons: 1) They want to see the rules in a new collective bargaining agreement, particularly when it comes to luxury-tax thresholds and penalties; 2) Many see a free-agent market saturated with bats and wonder whether patience will allow them to get a relative bargain later in the offseason with hitters who could not find a home at their expected prices.

Mostly, he could simply fall victim to an overcrowded ballot, on which voters only can select 10 players. Fifteen players return who received at least 7 percent of the vote, plus newcomers Rodriguez, Vladimir Guerrero and Manny Ramirez should receive plenty of support. The ballot is mainly jammed because players associated with steroids, such as Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, linger and absorb plenty of votes, but not nearly the 75 percent needed to gain election.

The ordinance is one thing. Enforcement of the ordinance is something else again. How’s that going to work? People in the stands turning each other in for violations? Bad idea. Will the security personnel in the clubhouse now be charged with seeing which players have cans of dip in their lockers, or a chaw in their cheek?

Some players are better in certain situations than others, Daniels said. That is why the Rangers on Monday completed work on a one-year deal worth $10 million with free agent starting pitcher Andrew Cashner.

It’s also why we propose something that will probably be considered akin to blasphemy on the North Side—the Cubs should at least consider exploring trades for Schwarber this offseason. Why? Because the Legend of Schwarber is at an all-time high, and the Value of Schwarber may never catch up.

Teams blast past their international pools but don’t blast past their First-Year Player Draft. Why? Although I can see how making the international pools higher could be a fix, I bet losing draft picks in the First-Year Draft besides losing future international pools would be an effective drag on international spending without introducing disincentives for international trainers.

Raising the bonus pools to $12 million each creates a bigger opportunity cost for teams that exceed their pool. If ...

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

“The greatest thing about baseball, perhaps, is its history. In nearly 150 years of play in leagues and informal competition that goes back further, many people have made baseball’s history what it is today.

“It’s not just players, but top executives, media members and even Supreme Court jurists helping craft baseball’s story….

Baseball’s streak of 21 consecutive years of labor peace is in jeopardy.

The owners will consider voting to lock out the players if the two sides cannot reach a new collective-bargaining agreement by the time the current deal expires on Dec. 1, according to sources with knowledge of the discussions.

A lockout would put baseball’s business on hold, delaying free-agent signings and trades until a new agreement is reached. The winter meetings, a joint venture between the majors and minors ...

Bill Hanna has figured out that such evidence as is found in results obtained from figuring the run producing capabilities of the different National league teams in relation to base stealing and sacrifice hitting as contributory factors shows that sacrificing does more to promote scoring than the base stealing method. The Phillies, more industrious exponents of the sacrifice hit than the Giants, made more runs in proportion to hits than the Giants, who were ...

Within the industry, there is a growing sense the star outfielder will command a five-year deal, which would leave the Mets facing a major decision on their immediate future.

As it stands, the Mets are likely committed to signing the 31-year-old if a four-year contract in the $100 million-to-$110 million neighborhood can be hammered out, according to an industry source, but there is less clarity on the matter when an additional year — which could push the value of a deal beyond $130 million ...

When Statcast defensive numbers become available, I expect a real shift in the defensive metrics. Even when that happens, though, the numbers will be better, but they still won’t be perfect. Those who expect perfection, both then and now, have unrealistic exceptions.

What I’m saying here is that while the defensive adjustments seem shaky and unpersuasive, the stark final WAR number — 6.6 to 5.0 WAR — is there in your face. I don’t know how many people voted for Verlander because of ...

For many fans, even hardcore Baseball America prospect watchers, those players who hit the minor league free agent market are simply names on a computer screen. So in this piece I will attempt to add context to those names, with a focus on younger free agents. To do this I determined league percentile ranks for major component statistics—where higher is always better—for all 534 minor league free agents in this year’s pool and ranked them accordingly.

Pick a team, any high-profile team — the Nationals, the Red Sox, the Giants, the Cardinals, the Cubs. It’s fun to think about Trout with any of those clubs — unless, of course, you are an Angels fan who relishes watching him every day.

Yet, as long as Trout stays in Anaheim, he will not be fully appreciated by the general public as the modern Mantle. He will not even be as famous as a certain Mickey in his county, the one who resides at Disneyland, last name Mouse.

The following are players who should rank near the top of teams’ preference lists heading into the Rule 5 draft regardless of position.

Yimmi Brasoban, rhp, Padres: Brasoban ranked 19th in the Padres system a year ago. The Padres’ system is significantly deeper this year, but it is still a surprise that San Diego left the hard-throwing righthander unprotected as he has two major league pitches (a 95-98 mph fastball and an excellent slider) and he has Double-A experience. Brasoban’s ...

That day should come in 2017. The ‘17 Hall of Fame ballot was released Monday, and Rodriguez is on there for the first time. There shouldn’t be a second time.
“A no-brainer,” said former Rangers outfielder Rusty Greer, speaking for almost everybody who watched Pudge play over his 21-year career. “It’s not only a no-brainer that he gets in, but a no-brainer that he gets in on the first ballot.”

Former Rangers general manager Tom Grieve said Rodriguez “checks all the boxes” for a Hall of Fame ...

President Weeghman of the Chicago Cubs left [yesterday] on a trip to St. Louis, where he announced he hoped to procure some star members of the St. Louis Nationals for his own club. Rogers Hornsby is the most desired of three players whom the Cub president will attempt to land, although his chances to obtain him, on the surface of reports, would appear very slim.

An astute move by Weeghman, attempting to acquire a 20-year-old who’s already one of the ...

The voters should be congratulated for their diligence, hard work and perceptive thinking in selecting the m.v.p.s and compiling their ballots. I suppose it’s the modern way of performing this onerous chore. Why think when you can just copy names from a list already computed elsewhere?

Why not change the name of the award from m.v.p. to W.A.R. Lord?

The point is there is more to a player’s value to his team than simple statistics. Certainly statistics play a large role in a player’s ...